NEW YORK, NY (June 17) – Three-time Olympic gold medal successful snowboarder and entrepreneur Shaun White is asserting the launch of the primary ever skilled winter sports activities league for snowboarding and freeskiing halfpipe competitors, debuting with its first occasion within the U.S. in early 2025.

The Snow League is the way forward for winter sports activities competitors, that includes a brand new elite stage multi-event world competitors format for snowboarding and freeskiing. Launching its first season with 5 halfpipe occasions, beginning March 2025 and ending winter of 2026 following the Winter Video games in Milan, The Snow League has reimagined aggressive codecs for fringe of your seat experiences broadcast worldwide from iconic winter resort locations.

White says “In spite of everything my years competing in many alternative codecs within the snowboarding house, I’ve come to comprehend that snowboarding and freeskiing athletes deserve a legit skilled league. Starting subsequent yr, The Snow League will give riders, freeskiers, and sports activities followers everywhere in the world a vacation spot for what I consider is probably the most thrilling athletic competitors in all of sports activities. Now’s the second to raise the subsequent era of winter athletes who’re pushing the bounds of competitors.”

The announcement was made immediately at Stagwell Sport Seaside on the Cannes Lions Pageant in France.

The enduring snowboarder says The Snow League hopes to find new superstars, underdogs, and fierce rivalries on this planet of snowboarding and freeskiing. Followers will be capable to watch the world’s elite winter athletes battle throughout intense competitors codecs, with premium on-site & broadcast manufacturing.

The primary season will function males’s and girls’s snowboard halfpipe competitions in any respect 5 occasions. The league plans to introduce freeskiing halfway by way of the primary season.  Athletes will accumulate factors based mostly on their outcomes from every occasion to be tallied collectively on the finish of the season to crown a world champion.  

The whole prize purse for the primary season will likely be not less than $1.5 million, representing the richest prize purse within the sport. 

How will athletes be chosen?

The Snow League’s snowboarding discipline will likely be made up of the highest 20 males and 16 ladies on this planet.  Riders will likely be chosen utilizing a modified rating from the World Snowboard Factors Record. The WSPL is the definitive common, clear and truthful rating system for aggressive snowboarding globally.

Competitors and Season Format

The competitors construction and format will likely be completely different than what has been seen earlier than. Representing the primary ever aggressive platform the place the world’s elite athletes can compete constantly all year long and season over season, the league will function 5 halfpipe occasions within the first season with plans for added occasions and disciplines in subsequent seasons. 

A prize purse will likely be awarded at every occasion. Athletes may even earn factors for his or her outcomes, which will likely be cumulative on the finish of the season the place a further prize purse will likely be distributed to the league’s prime finishers.

The occasions will embody a coaching day and two days of competitors with revolutionary codecs:

• Day 2: Qualifying day
  • 20 males and 16 ladies will likely be seeded into 4 qualifying heats, every with a better of two run format. The highest qualifier from every warmth will advance to championship day. The subsequent two finest scores from every warmth may even earn an opportunity to compete for the final 4 championship spots in one other warmth utilizing a further better of two run format. 

• Day 3: Championship day
  • 8 males and eight ladies transfer on to championship day which incorporates a head-to-head bracket format, seeded from qualifying day with quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals rounds. A rider should win two of three runs to advance to the subsequent spherical within the bracket. 

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim says “Shaun White has been a serious inspiration for me ever since I made a decision to pursue snowboarding. I’ve all the time admired him as a competitor above all. When he known as to share the information, my preliminary response was disbelief—Shaun White is asking me?? However after listening to him share this with a lot pleasure, it rapidly made sense; it’s simply the sort of factor he would do. I’m thrilled about this league. It’ll be nice to have competitions that focus extra on the athletes, giving us extra alternatives to shine and do what we do finest: snowboard. I’m grateful to Shaun for giving again to the game and his unwavering mission to uplift it.”

[o] Mike Dawson